inside the neolithic revolution. spread of humans
TRANSCRIPT
1. Climate and Terrain: Conditions for Agriculture
• Good weather and change of seasons.• Plenty of rainfall• Different elevations for different crops• Access to rivers and fresh water• Good soil
Agriculture: Causes
• What made it necessary in some places and unnecessary in others?
– Adequate domesticable plants and animals made it possible = Agriculture
– Shortage of animals and domesticable plants = No agriculture
Areas of agriculture
• China: Millet, wheat and rice
• Mesopotamia (Iraq): wheat and barley
• South and Central America: corn, squash, and beans
• Africa: sorghum, millet, and yams
Criteria for domestication of animals
• Herbivores (plant eaters)• Adequate size (over 100 pounds)• Friendly and not competitive• Fast growth rate and birth spacing• Will breed in captivity• Predictable and won’t panic
143 possibilities--only 14 fit all criteria. All domesticated animals today domesticated by 2500 BCE
Animal domestication
Eurasia Sub-Saharan Africa
Americas Australia
Species that met some criteria for domestication
72
51
24
1
Species that met ALL criteria for domestication
13
0
1
0
Benefits of Domesticated Animals
• Domesticated animals provide a food source• Domesticated animals provide labor• Domesticated animals provide fertilizer (but
don’t step in it!)• Exposure to domesticated animals leads to
disease– Cows: small pox, measles, tuberculosis– Pigs: influenza (flu)
• Societies eventually developed immunities to these diseases
The spread of agriculture
• Farming spread slowly in the Americas and Africa
• Farming spread quickly in Eurasia